Praise
for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” has resounded from pulpit
to pew. It is evident that there are many Christians who, without
reservation, are prepared to accept movies about “Christ”, even one in
the Catholic tradition. The question therefore that must be asked is
this: in the light of Scripture, is their position defendable or do
they fall under the condemnation of Almighty God?
No revival without the true Gospel and a righteous anger against
Images
Evangelicals have discovered themselves
confronting crisis upon crisis.
After decades of endeavor and aggregate growth, moral turpitude and the
apparent demise of marriage like corrupt weeds, blossom before their
face. The modus vivendi embodied in the 1994 “Evangelicals &
Catholics Together” (ECT) still confuses and deceives. Its
ecclesiastical endorsement has further led many Evangelical churches to
believe that there is no essential difference between Catholicism and
Biblical Christianity. The dramatic “Passion” movie perpetuates the
lie. In the Evangelical camp, the carnal pandering of “seeker
sensitive” churches loiters unquestioned. The unregenerate fill the
pews, and silence, the pulpits. There is no conviction of sin, because
the Gospel is unavowed. Within the Reformed churches there is division,
contention, and strife caused by the “Auburn Avenue controversy” and
the “New Perspective on Justification.” Revival has been preached,
pursued, and prayed for and still remains aloof. “We have been with
child, we have been in pain, we have as it were, brought forth wind; we
have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the
inhabitants of the world fallen.” In the soil of “another” Gospel can
spring no revival! In the temple of images and pictures can come no
renewal! From Moses unto Hosea, those who sought to revive the spirit
of the nation and would have hearts return to a true worship of God,
condemned images. And that which is condemned in the Old Testament is
not justified in the New Testament. The great revivals in Christian
history have flourished under the true Gospel and the denunciation of
idolatry. So it was with the Vaudois, the Waldenses, the Lollards, the
Bohemians, and the Reformers. In the Dark Ages, luminaries such as
Girolamo Savonarola, John Wycliffe, and John Huss attacked the
corruption of idolatry and preached the Gospel.
In the Great Awakening in the USA, preachers
inspired by George
Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and William Law, sought to glorify God in
the Gospel by uniting veracious worship with the censuring of images.
“If Jesse Lee had not come into Massachusetts, some one else pressed in
spirit, like Paul at Athens ‘when he saw the city wholly given to
idolatry’, would have found utterance and would have had followers.”
Following Jonathan Edwards’ publication of the journal of David
Brainerd, “The revival had greatest impact when Brainerd emphasised the
compassion of the Saviour, the provisions of the gospel, and the free
offer of divine grace. Idolatry was abandoned, marriages repaired,
drunkenness practically disappeared….Their communities were filled with
love.” The witness of this testimony must not remain unheeded if we are
to receive the blessing we long for from On High, for “what agreement
hath the temple of God with idols?”
Christ’s Divine Person is revealed only in One human body
Christians
reason within themselves that since God became a man in the person of
Christ, a picture of Jesus is but an image of an image. Their
rationalization is that the Incarnation is justification, if not
authorization, for us to depict Christ in human form. They argue
further that no portrait can display a man’s soul, thus Christ’s body
can be legitimately pictured distinct from His Divinity. Poor deluded
Christians, unwilling to severe the last vestiges of carnal thinking,
averse to bringing “every thought to the obedience of Christ.” Christ
remains amongst humanity unique. Attempts to represent this uniqueness
in human form (an achievement that God alone could do in the
Incarnation) destroy it. The multiplicity of depictions with various
facial features, hues and expressions, denies it. A man has but one
nature, and thus he can be legitimately portrayed with no offense to
what he is, but not so Christ who is also Divine; and to make Him into
an “image like unto corruptible man” is to transgress the Law and
insult the Godhead. Those who saw Christ upon this earth, had before
their eyes “God manifest in the flesh”. What animistic artist or
photographer could claim such for his effort? What do we have then? Is
it not an attempt to create a likeness of the One of Whom we have no
likeness? This then is the very essence of idolatry – the false
representation of God. In the silence of our chambers we should
reverently pray, “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is
like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” ,
and lo, the answer thunders down through the ages, “I am God, and there
is none like me…”
The Person of Christ consists of two indivisible
natures – the Human
and the Divine. He who manifested in the flesh was really and truly
God. And yet, it was real human flesh. “Forasmuch as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the
same…” Pictures or movies of Christ are merely portraits of a human
body. It is totally impossible to show forth the divinity of Christ;
this only His body in heaven can now do, “For in him dwelleth all the
fulness of the Godhead bodily.” The fullness of the Godhead dwells in
Christ, and not figuratively, for he is both God and man. This
“fullness” can never be found in types, figures, and likenesses of Him.
Any such replication is utter deceit. Whenever a bodily form is
ascribed to Christ Jesus, it remains a gross lie. This fact - that
Christ Jesus is both God and man - is a great and central doctrine of
Christian faith. What Evangelicals fail to comprehend is that by so
representing Christ, they are perjuring themselves before the All Holy
God because all depictions of Him succeed in showing humanity bereft of
divinity. “What profiteth the graven image…a teacher of lies, that the
maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?” The words of
Scripture alone patently present the divinity of Christ.
Christ Jesus in His person and human nature is the
express image of
God. Whoever has seen Him has seen the Father. If Jesus were only a
man, albeit the best of men, it would be quite acceptable to portray
Him. But Christ is not! He is the express image of God, “Who being the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.” This
image involves His eternal essence and as such is singular and cannot
not replicated or reproduced. Those who accept pictures and movies of
Christ fail to comprehend that they have reduced Christ’s incarnation
to humanity alone. These representations ignore the inimitable
character of Christ Jesus as the unexampled “express image” of God.
While He is truly a man, yet Christ’s humanity cannot be separated from
His divinity. Such practice perpetuates the heresy of Nestorius who
taught that Jesus was two distinct “persons,” one human and one
divine.
The uniqueness of Christ Jesus coupled with the
command not to practice
idolatry is given in the strongest terms in the New Testament. “And we
know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even
in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little
children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” There can be no doubt that
He of whom it is said, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God,” and, “all things were made by him, and
without him was not anything made that was made”; Who Himself declared
“I and my Father are one,” was worshipped as “my Lord and my God”! He
is very God of very God.
Do we imagine that God in His omniscience did not
foresee portraits or
pictures, canvas or cameras? Are we wiser that He? There beats within
the heart of every man a craving for visible forms to give expression
to religious beliefs. Because of this evil desire, the Lord God has
forbidden idolatry, warning of its corrupting influence. If believers
have been deceived in this matter, it is our desire and prayer that
they see the truth of God’s Word and understand that they have been
feeding upon ashes and say, “For the idols have spoken vanity, and the
diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in
vain.”
Presentations that confuse the distinction between God and His
created world
A
picture or movie of Christ because of inherent limitations, resides in
the world of created things. Whatever aspirations may be intended, it
can rise no higher than that which it is. Hence it blurs the
distinctness between God and man, confusing the Creator with the
creation. The Apostle Paul reveals the cause of this confusion,
“Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened.” This digression, the Apostle tells us,
continues because, “professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image
made like to corruptible man….” The problem is this: “to whom then will
ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?” . The
Scriptural answer is unequivocal: “be not conformed to this world: but
be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what
is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
Any attempted portrayal of Christ transforms the
medium itself into a
mediator between God and man. The viewer, restricted within the
confines this humanistic plane, imagines that he knows the Lord, at
least in some measure. With this inculcated image of Christ throbbing
within his mind, the viewer is allowed to wander, silently thinking his
own thoughts, constrained by an impression that is not Christ. Thus,
the viewer’s mind continues to be conformed to the world by the created
image and by his own subjectivity. Although such visual presentations
appeal strongly to the sensual impulses, they do not present explicitly
to any man the objective truth concerning the Lord.
Our knowledge of Jesus Christ must be formed from
the truths in
Scripture and not by subjective impressions of artistic interpretation.
In the latter, the artist and the viewer coalesce God and His creation
into a single entity within the picture, and this is the visible
expression of idolatry. This spurious image lays the foundation for a
pantheistic concept of God. Marvel not then that, “Soaring pagan
numbers have churches worrying and calling for stricter controls on
cult TV programs and films that celebrate sorcery like “Harry Potter,”
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.” The command
given in Scripture is to choose God’s way so as to know and follow
Christ in His Word! When obeyed, upon the pages of Scripture, in the
words of the Law, in the grace of the Gospel, we know Him in spirit and
truth.
We do not see Jesus Christ with the physical eye.
This is the whole
meaning of faith. The excellence of the object of faith is the unseen
Jesus. While sense deals with things that are seen, reason is a higher
plane. Faith however ascends further still, and assures us of abundance
of particulars that sense and reason could never have found. “Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith nourishes itself – “I had fainted unless I had believed to see” -
upon the power and promises of the Unseen. We can understand, then, the
logic and consistent purpose of why the Lord God forbids images.
Pictures and movies that break God’s Law and defile God’s Grace
Evangelical
churches demonstrate an ignorance of the meaning of the Second
Commandment, which forbids using images to represent God.
“Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor
serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of
them that love me, and keep my commandments.”
This commandment prohibits the creation and use
of graven images. It
essentially brings to mind that God is a Spirit, not to be conceived of
or fashioned in man’s image, or any other creature. In Deuteronomy
4:12-16 is found a concomitant passage,
“And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the
voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And
he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform,
even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And
the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments,
that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.
Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of
similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the
midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven
image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or
female.…”
What is forbidden is the similitude of Lord
Himself. No similitude of
the Divine was given to the people and none was to be made. And in the
New Testament, we see that no “similitude” of Christ Jesus was given,
and the commandment must remain unabridged. Any similitude or image of
Father, Son or Holy Spirit is sinful and insulting to the majesty of
the Lord God. And what of those who seek balm for their conscience in
preferring pictures over statues, as if the lack of one dimension
transforms the image into a thing acceptable unto God? They well
imagine that they have acted more nobly toward the Lord because theirs
is not a “graven image.” It comforts them not to be upon the Roman road
of idolatry, oblivious to the fact that they parallel it upon the Greek
route. God forbids the making of any divine likeness. Therefore it is a
transgression of God’s law to make a “representation” or “semblance” of
anything in heaven or upon the earth, to delineate God. He calls those
who break this commandment “those who hate me”, and those who keep the
commandment, “those who love me” . Punishment for iniquity is promised
to the transgressors, while blessing is pledged to its adherents. From
God’s perspective idolatry is spiritual adultery, so with the indignant
reaction of a betrayed husband, He continues, “for I the LORD thy God
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate
me.”
The Lesson of the Golden Calf
The
children of Israel languished in impatience and unbelief at the base of
Mount Sinai, waiting for Moses, who seemingly would not return.
Impatience grew into murmuring, murmuring into vociferation. God they
had never seen with their eyes; and now His anointed, “this Moses. .
.we wot not what is become of him.” He too, it appeared, had vanished,
never to return. “Up,” they enjoined Aaron, “make us gods.” The
corporeal yearning of their hearts demanded visible forms for religious
expression. But there is a price to be paid; the pure must be forfeited
to produce the crass. They must part with their gold, and bring it to
Aaron and he took it, “and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he
had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods (Elohim), O
Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron
saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and
said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.” The children of Israel looked
upon this idol and called it “Elohim. . .which brought thee up out of
Egypt.” Aaron ratified this designation, for with the image as
centerpiece, tomorrow would be a feast to Jehovah. But what did God
see? The answer is given in Scripture, “They made a calf in Horeb and
worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their Glory into the
similitude of an ox that eateth grass; they forgat God their
Savior.”
The Apostle Paul tells us that idolatry is changing,
“the Glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to
birds, and to fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. What was their
Glory, and is the Church’s glory, is in truth the Glory of God Himself
and it cannot, and must not, be represented by an image of a man or a
beast. God, knowing the evil inclinations of men, and their struggle to
justify their ungodly deeds, especially those done in the name of
religion has declared, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out
of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Whatever
theologians may debate concerning this verse, one thing is clear; if
you give a physical representation to Christ’s face, then you have
defined and defiled the Glory of God. Whether a “man” or an “ox that
eateth grass” any attempt to replicate that Glory, save that which God
does Himself, is idolatry.
An overview of the Christian history of idolatry
The
Apostles, whose epistles and gospels are the very oracles of God, are
men who could say, “That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled, of the Word of Life,” never give a physical
description of Christ. Rather, they proclaimed what He said and what He
did. They emphasize His death and resurrection, explaining the
significance of these events, and the necessity of faith in them in
order to be saved. The Apostle Paul pointedly states that we know Jesus
no longer after the flesh. Peter says of Christ, Whom having not seen,
ye love, in Whom though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And men and women, regenerated
by the Holy Spirit, exulted in the unseen Christ just as the Patriarchs
had done in the unseen Jehovah, neither did they clamor for a
description of the Lord. The New Testament muteness on this point is an
essential compliance with the dictates of the Old Testament. Any other
contemporaneous source claiming to provide a description of Christ is
extracanonical.
In
the first two centuries of the Church, Christians did not use images to
represent Christ. During this infancy the early Christians would not
bow to the image of Caesar nor to any work of man’s hands. They had no
images, statues, or pictures; they well understood that the God they
worshipped would never have accepted such an affront, for He alone is
God. How then did idolatry come into the Church? It was a process of
time, indifference, ignorance and deceit. In the year 313 A.D., when
the Roman Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the official
religion of the Empire, pagans by governmental edict, and not
regeneration, found themselves to be Christians. Not knowing God or the
Gospel, they flooded the Church, idols in their arms, in their homes,
in their minds, and in their hearts. True believers, however, opposed
pictures and statues as representing Christ. The controversy raged back
and forth for several centuries, and there was much turmoil over the
matter. In the midst of this battle, Pope Gregory the Great I (604)
presented a seemingly innocent and compellingly plausible argument in
their favor. He wrote to Bishop Serenus of Marseilles, who had
destroyed the images in his diocese, “What books are to those who can
read, that is a picture to the ignorant who look at it; in a picture
even the unlearned may see what example they should follow; in a
picture they who know no letters may yet read. Hence, for barbarians
especially a picture takes the place of a book.” Such carnal reasoning
usurps authority from the Word of God. But in truth, if the illiterate
cannot read, they can certainly “hear” and “faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God,” because “it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe.” Then in the year 754 A.D., a
large council of bishops declared that such pictures are not biblical
and therefore are not acceptable in the Church. Twenty-three years
later however another council of bishops reversed that teaching. The
Second Council of Nicea, which met in 787 A.D, required the use of
pictures and statues as signifying Christ. This inexcusable idolatry of
the Roman Catholic Church led into the Dark Ages. When the Reformation
came, and with it the true Gospel, there was also a condemnation of the
evils of idolatry. To escape idolatry, many people left the Catholic
Church, and Bible based churches sprang up in many countries. At the
time of the Reformation both pastors and people realized that
everything respecting God that is learned from images is both futile
and false.
“O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to
err. . . and destroy the way of thy paths.” How did it come to this? It
may well be argued that the spirit of Jezebel is alive in the Church,
and she is teaching His servants “to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”
As with any education this one commences in the elementary grades – the
decorative “religious” pictures, the carnal reasoning, the excuses and
justification, and the assurance that the incipient deed will go no
further. But she knows that every man is at heart an idolater, and it
takes but a blink of the eye to go from hanging an image to bowing the
knee. Thus, once the rudimentary lessons are learned and accepted, her
students are almost certain to progress into a papal form of idolatry.
Unless vigilance is exercised in guarding against that initial step,
the conclusion is inevitable. Because Christ is the focus of
Christianity, any picture that attempts to portray Him, becomes special
in comparison to all others. Although the picture is not Christ, nor is
it an honest replication of Him; eventually however, in the mind of
observer, it will be both. It must certainly be the latter initially,
else why hang a picture of an unknown stranger upon the wall? Ask the
owner of that picture, “Who is this?” and he shall answer without
hesitation, and with no more proof than general consensus, “It is
Jesus,” when in fact it is not, and thus it fulfills all the criteria
necessary to qualify as an idol – a false representation of God. And
because he is certain that this image is Jesus, he is bound by his
respect for Christ to honor the picture, but “honor” will eventually
give way to “reverence”, and “reverence” shall cede to “veneration.”
Surely this is the curse that he binds about the necks of his
children’s, children’s children. It is to be feared that this warning
will fall upon deaf ears. Many who call themselves Christian have a
cavalier attitude toward the issue of idolatry. They rationalize along
these lines. “I am saved and I use pictures, movies and videos of
Christ, therefore, pictures, movies and videos of Christ cannot be
wrong.” Hence, God no longer is adjudicator of what is right and what
is wrong, the creature is, presuming upon the holy gift of salvation as
a license to do his own pleasure. God’s Word ceases to be the basis for
“what is believed,” but “what is believed” becomes the interpreter of
God’s Word. In effect, the “Christian’s” will becomes the arbitrator
that reins in the truth of Scripture. How difficult is it then to adopt
Catholicism’s official teaching, “By becoming incarnate, the Son of God
introduced a new ‘economy’ of images,” and relegate the Word of the
Lord to the status of a “silent partner”?
It seems that none of us is ever far from the taint
of Egypt. It
cleaves to our garments, and beckons us back in the night watches.
Unless prayerful and vigilant, we succumb, perhaps not at once, but by
moments and by steps. That which was an object of our indifference
becomes a focus of our need. Mark this well: the pictures that this
generation hangs in the temple will be the idols, which the next
generation shall worship. There is little hesitation to insert the
adjective “sacred” before the word “picture,” and this will provide the
rationale for veneration. How many Christians have defended the picture
of Christ adorning their wall by saying that they worship not the
image, but that which the image represents. Do they honestly believe
that by this sophistry they honor God? Indeed, they posit as the
papists do today, and postulate as the pagans did yesterday. The
ancient pagans lived in societies awash with statues and shrines
dedicated to each god. These idolaters also believed that when they
knelt before their effigies, they were worshipping the gods, which the
image represented. No doubt this association, allied with natural
superstition, imparted a sentient quality to the idol for the
worshipper, but let this fact be counted a warning rather than a
distinction. Does not the Church of Rome, where truth once again bows
to superstition, claim miracles of animation for their idols? Her
votaries have testified of statues that move and weep. This is the
legacy of all idolatry.
Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?
What
shall we say more? There is a facial similarity in the many attempts to
portray Christ, from the manicured beard and the long wavy hair, to the
effeminate features with the placid, melancholy stare. But even this
eerie conspiracy is not the issue. What are the chances that any artist
relying solely upon intrinsic inspiration could alight upon the correct
features of the historic Jesus? If they are not His features then they
are a misrepresentation of the Son of God, and that, by definition
makes them idols. Or are we to believe, as some spiritualists allege,
that God directed their hands; that God inspired them to draw as they
have? Then we claim a God-inspired image; a God-ordained idol. God
forbid! Since Christ Jesus is God manifested in the flesh, this truth
takes Him out of the field of artistic conception and places Him in the
realm of Divine Revelation; “Flesh and blood hath not revealed this
unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.” “Little children, keep
yourselves from idols.” ♦
Permission is given by the authors to copy this article if it is done
in its entirety without any changes.
Permission is also given post this article in its entirety on Internet
WebPages.
Our WebPage is: www.bereanbeacon.org
Pastor Randall Paquette may be contacted for preaching or speaking
engagements. Contact him at: rdpaq@quik.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Endnotes:
[1] Isaiah 26:18
[2] God will cast all idolaters into“the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,which is the second death” Revelation 21:1-8, Acts 17:29-30, and Romans 1:22-25
[3] http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:l4a0QsT5bn8J 3/12/04
[4] http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/fire/ff-1700.htm 3/12/04
[5] II Corinthians 6:16
[6] Exodus 15:11
[7] Isaiah 46:9
[8] I Timothy 3:16
[9] Hebrews 2:14
[10] Colossians 2:9
[11] Habakkuk 2:18
[12] John 1:14; 14:9.
[13] Hebrews 1:3
[14] Nestorianism is the heresy named after Nestorius who was born in Syria and died in 451 AD. He advocated the doctrine that Jesus had two distinct persons. The biblical solution to that controversy was stated at the Council of Ephesus (431 AD) when it was shown that Christ has two natures in His one person. On questions about whether the two natures can be merged into one, confused or separated, a later the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) showed biblically that the two natures can never be confused with each other, nor can they be separated from each other.
[15] I John 5:20-21
[16] Zechariah 10:2
[17] Romans 1:21
[18] Romans 1: 22-23
[19] Isaiah 40:18
[20] Romans 12:2
[21] 2003 Reuters Limited 6/20/03
[22] Hebrews 11:1
[23] Psalm 27:1
[24] Exodus 20:4-6
[25] The Greek Orthodox honor and kiss icons. These are pictures and not statues. They state “use of icons was defended and upheld at the Seventh Ecumenical Council. The end of that council is still celebrated as the ‘Triumph of Orthodoxy’ in today, and icons remain a central part of Orthodox faith and practice.” www.fact-index.com/e/ea/eastern_orthodoxy.html
[26] Exodus 20:5
[27] Exodus 20:6
[28] Exodus 20: 5
[29]Psalm.106: 19-21
[30] Roman 1:23
[31] II Corintians 4:6
[32] I John 1:1
[33] II Corinthians 5:16 “Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.”
[34] Ep. ix, 105, in P. L., LXXVII, 1027 http://landru.i-link-2.net/shnyves/Catholic_Tradition_art.html 3/15/04
[35] Isaiah 3:12[36] Revelation 2:20. She has plied her trade with unparalleled success, from Babylon to India. But her greatest achievement, the Church of Rome today, has its adherents kneel before a crucifix (which is an idol) whilst the priest raises before it an Eucharist, the oblation of the “bloodless” sacrifice of the Mass - and then amidst the orchestration of this solemn act, her votaries, in their turn, eat this thing sacrificed unto idols precisely as Revelation.2:20 charges. But how did this come about? Not over night, Jezebel taught in stages commencing their education with the primary lessons: pictures hanging in homes to inspire, used to teach the illiterate, and statues used to represent, the “saints”, Christ, et al., and all to be pious ornaments in the churches, etc. But the end was inevitable. Rest assured, should the Lord tarry, the same Evangelical churches, which today tolerate pictures, will one day be having their communion with one on the table in front of the elements (perhaps some already do) and eventually will place it in a predella and bow before it and eat their bread. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It is that Jezebel who was “suffered” or tolerated by the elders at Thyatira that is being tolerated in Evangelism today, and the result is assured.
[37] Catechism, Para 2131
[38] US News & World Report 3/ 29/ 93. “The case of the Weeping Madonna”, pp. 46-50